http://www.met-office.gov.uk/cgi-bin...och=1121644800

A bit close for comfort :-0
--
Keith (Southend)

'Weather Home & Abroad'
http://www.southendweather.net

Keith (Southend) wrote in message ...
:http://www.met-office.gov.uk/cgi-bin...epoch=11216448
00
:A bit close for comfort :-0

This is mentioned at the end of this article on the current heatwave in
France
http://actu.tiscali.fr/francemonde/d...et=FranceMonde
&position=7 but they are called "sauterelles", i.e. grasshoppers.

Causing a lot of damage to vegetation though.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

"Colin Youngs" wrote in message


This is mentioned at the end of this article on the current heatwave
in France

http://actu.tiscali.fr/francemonde/d...et=FranceMonde
&position=7 but they are called "sauterelles", i.e. grasshoppers.

Causing a lot of damage to vegetation though.

Filling a lot of saucepans too though no doubt.

I meant to add to another post about the small insects I noticed last
night. I thought they must have been midges or thunder flies. But I
wouldn't know.

Did anyone else notice a minor infestation of any sort?



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Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

"Colin Youngs" wrote in message
...
Keith (Southend) wrote in message ...
:http://www.met-office.gov.uk/cgi-bin...epoch=11216448
00
:A bit close for comfort :-0

This is mentioned at the end of this article on the current heatwave in
France
http://actu.tiscali.fr/francemonde/d...et=FranceMonde
&position=7 but they are called "sauterelles", i.e. grasshoppers.

Causing a lot of damage to vegetation though.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

Hallo Colin,

Yes, sauterelles are indeed grasshoppers and we are absolutely inundated
with them, but this happens every year. They are everywhere, even up the
windows and jumping inside. We are in Basse Normandie only 75 miles from
the Channel Coast.

Our small dog absolutely loves them, and consumes rather a lot each day -
that is when he can catch them!

To be honest, I haven't seen any huge damage to vegetation and I am a keen
gardener. I'll ask our farmer friends if it has affected them.

Quite different to an invasion of locusts though.

Regards
Iris McCanna

Barry & Iris McCanna wrote in message
...

:Yes, sauterelles are indeed grasshoppers and we are absolutely inundated
:with them, but this happens every year. They are everywhere, even up the
:windows and jumping inside. We are in Basse Normandie only 75 miles from
:the Channel Coast.
:
:Our small dog absolutely loves them, and consumes rather a lot each day -
:that is when he can catch them!
:
:To be honest, I haven't seen any huge damage to vegetation and I am a keen
:gardener. I'll ask our farmer friends if it has affected them.
:
:Quite different to an invasion of locusts though.

It seems they are a species called "psophus stridulus"
http://www.nobodyhere.com/just/_gfx/jpg_large/i459.jpg . Not found in the
UK and I cannot trace an English name. So not quite the harmless
grasshoppers your dog likes - but also not the African locusts the original
article made us imagine.

Article in French in "Le Figaro"
http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20050716.FIG0099.html

Area affected is the south of the Aveyron department - NW of Montpellier and
NE of Toulouse. According to the article, the insects are native to the
area but rarely seen in such large numbers. Mostly they feed on and are
doing great damage to lucerne crops grown for forage. An extra problem for
local farms on top of the drought.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

Barry & Iris McCanna wrote in message
...
:Quite different to an invasion of locusts though.

.... and the effects of real locusts and real drought made only too obvious
by the report on famine in Niger at the start of tonight's BBC TV news.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

In article , "Colin Youngs" writes:
Keith (Southend) wrote in message ...

:http://www.met-office.gov.uk/cgi-bin...epoch=11216448
00

:A bit close for comfort :-0


This is mentioned at the end of this article on the current heatwave in
France
http://actu.tiscali.fr/francemonde/d...et=FranceMonde
&position=7 but they are called "sauterelles", i.e. grasshoppers.

There's a world of difference between locusts and grasshoppers. The UN Locust
Watch has no reports of swarms anywhere near France! Is the UKMO trying to
outdo the Sunday Sport?


No Cheers,

keith






---
Iraq: 6.5 thousand million pounds, 90 UK lives, and counting...
100,000+ civilian casualties, largely of coalition bombing...
London?...

"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...
http://www.met-office.gov.uk/cgi-bin...och=1121644800

A bit close for comfort :-0
--
Keith (Southend)

'Weather Home & Abroad'
http://www.southendweather.net


Notice that the only pesticides they can use are banned under EU rules.
Isn't that just the limit.:-( So I suppose they have to put up with this
and the next thing we will hear is that food prices are going up :-(

Gavin.